By FirstWave Financial®
Business transition planning is hard. But the alternative (not planning) can be much more painful and costly.
Joe Dentist has a very successful practice established over decades of effort and accomplishment. He and his dedicated team of loyal employees have worked long and hard together, helping generations of families and friends enjoy good dental health. Then one day Joe doesn’t show up for work. The stunned employees and waiting patients find out he died of a massive heart attack that morning. Everyone is shocked! They grieve and support each other through the first few weeks after Joe’s death.
But, by the time six months go by, all the patients have found other dentists and the employees are searching for other places to work. Mrs. Dentist will receive some life insurance proceeds as a result of Joe’s death, but what about the value of the business it took decades for Joe to create? Vanished. What about the relationships that existed between the employees and the families of those they served? Fractured and maybe broken forever. In addition to the feelings of grief and loss from Joe’s death, there are feelings of regret about how this once thriving small business suddenly ended, wishing it might have happened differently.
Unfortunately, scenarios like this one will happen in most small businesses. 99% of small businesses will not last more than ten years and survive a business transition. Why? Because it is difficult to even consider, let alone plan for, how the business would continue if something unexpected happened to one or more of its current owners. What if you want to transition the business to family members or valued co-workers? How do you go about determining a value for the business that is reasonable and fair to everyone? How much do you need to live the rest of your life as you desire? Questions like these can seem so difficult to answer it is easy to procrastinate and do nothing, as most small businesses do.
There is help: The Transition Roadmap Developer™; a transformational process that takes into consideration the practical, financial and emotional aspects of your unique business transition challenge and delivers a customized step-by-step action plan designed to increase your likelihood of success.
A successful business transition can be the cherry on top of a life’s work. When this happens the business can continue to grow and prosper, relationships (employees, their families, customers, clients, patients) are maintained and strengthened, the business legacy continues into the future and there is a real sense of pride and accomplishment.
The Transition Roadmap Developer™ isn’t just some set of theoretical ideas but has been hammered out on the anvil of real-life experiences. I have personally been through six business transitions in my thirty-five-year entrepreneurial career and have provided advice and counseling on countless more. Some of these business transitions went well, and some went very poorly. The business transition I am implementing right now is the best I have experienced in my entire lifetime. What we have learned may help you.
All small businesses transition eventually. Be intentional about how you want this to happen. Call and schedule your complimentary consultation with one of our WealthCoaches™ to see if The Transition Roadmap Developer™ is the process you may want to investigate for improved clarity in this critically important area of your personal and business life.
